RPM Print Workflow

RPM Remote Print Manage® (RPM) has a straightforward processing order for all print jobs:

RPM runs each transform from first to last, assuming there are any transforms at all

RPM runs each action against the final result of step #1, or the original print job if there are no transforms

It’s worth stating again that for every print job, each action uses the same input.

Here is an example of how this might work. Let’s say you want to create a PDF and archive to disk. and you also want to print the job to a Windows printer. While there is a way to print PDFs from RPM there is a more straightforward way than that. This is where we introduce the “Copy queue” action.

You could set up two queues, one to text print and one to create and archive PDF, then print twice; but why do that? It doubles the load on your network. Surely there is a better way and we would like to show it to you.

To illustrate our print workflow, let's split the processing between several other queues. Create a queue called "A" and send your text file print jobs to it.

In Queue A, we would do the following. Have one transform “Text to Text Markup”. This transform parses the file, and recognizes bold and overstrike, among other conventions. The transform adds directives which control font selection, lines per inch and columns per line.

The actions for Queue A are:

Copy to Queue B

Copy to Queue C

These actions are so quick that you will find progress will not bog down.

In Queue B our transform is “Text Markup to PDF” and the action is “Archive to disk”. The transform reads the text markup, including fonts and character sizes. The archive action is where RPM stores our PDF file on disk.

In Queue C we have no transform. The only action is “Text Print” where we select the printer and the Windows print attributes, such as duplex and page orientation. The Text Print action will give you a rendered copy as close to the PDF version as we can make it.

This seems simplistic but it saves a lot of duplicated definitions which saves you time and troubleshooting. We have customers with demanding performance systems who use this to advantage.